a'hellen from egypt....

2006-12-19T05:26:00.000-08:00

nick is tall. and sometimes, he does strange things with his legs...

i am one hundred feet tall.

view from my apartment

bedouin nick with me and charlie brown

4 more days...

2006-12-19T04:44:00.000-08:00

wow, i have really neglected this blog in the past month. i apologize--quite a lot has happened so i'm going to try to catch up over a couple of posts.

nick came to visit a couple of weeks ago! it was pretty hysterical walking around with a 6'5 blond haired, blue eyed american man--as if i didn't draw enough attention to myself already. but at least the catcalls were directed at him this time: "lucky man."

almost immediately after he got off his flight, we hopped on a bus headed for sharm el sheikh: a beautiful resort town in the sinai. we spent the weekend on the beach relaxing, eating good food, and pretty much in the anti-egypt. it was bizarre, actually. the resort was so full of europeans comfortable in speedos and itsy bitsy bikinis that i couldn't have felt farther from egypt. AND, i had my first snorkeling experience--apparently the snorkeling and diving in sharm is some of the most beautiful in the world. we took a boat for a couple hours until we were in sight of saudi arabia, and then we spent all day in incredibly warm, blue waters. absolutely amazing. everything is so vivid underwater--i don't think the pictures can possibly do it justice.

we spent the rest of his time in cairo--i wanted him to be able to see as much of the city as possible, but there is just so much to see here. we walked around coptic cairo for a day, looking at churches from the FIRST century (incredible) and even got to see some of a coptic orthodox service. the emphasis on icons and incense is much more intense than in roman catholicism, and the singing of the priest has a distinct middle eastern chant feel--but the latin chants are the same. it was really, really cool.

we also went to the pyramids--while a lot of people expect the pyramids to be in the middle of the desert, they are actually just on the outskirts of the city. if photographed from the right angle, you can see them rising out of the city background. we walked around for a while, just admiring the sheer size of these ancient tombs, and then hopped on a camel named charlie brown to continue our journey. our camel driver was pretty hysterical, actually--he gave us advice about how to not get robbed, and showed us pictures of his friends, and (much to my delight) dressed nick up like a bedouin. it's a rough business these days at the pyramids. he mentioned to us how we were his first customers of the day, and that business has dropped severely since 9/11. what's ironic about cairo is that violent crime is incredibly low and that tourist police are on almost every street corner to insure foreigners' safety, but people are still afraid to come here. it's sad--it's a city with a lot to offer.

Sudanese Dinner

2006-11-21T06:51:00.000-08:00

on sunday night, one of the refugees from our english class invited all the teachers over for dinner at his house on the outskirts of cairo. we got to meet his entire family--about 14 or 15 people lived there from what i could tell. and they couldn't have been more welcoming, it was sort of like christmas. they showed us home videos of birthday parties and celebrations, chatted about politics (they happen to really like the bush administration, which really surprised me in this part of the world. i guess they think he's a strong leader because of his aggressive foreign policy, and they're desperate for someone to take an active role in sudan), and we listened to their favorite music: tupac. we sat down to dinner with 'california knows how to party' blaring in the background and prayed over traditional sudanese food. from what i could understand, there was bread called 'kisr' or something like that--it's made of flour and vinegar and water--and a soupy, meat dish in a big bowl that you're supposed to eat with the bread. and, not to make light of their amazing hospitality, it sort of had the consistency of snot. blech. i really couldn't get over that. and mollie and i certainly spent a huge amount of time in the bathroom all night... sigh. what i couldn't get over though is how incredibly physically beautiful these people were--they were all well over six foot five, and had this gorgeous dark skin, and graceful lean bodies. i felt like a dumpy, pale midget.

we also had a conversation class for english where i brought in a couple people from my apartment to help break the class into small groups and just talk about whatever. it might sound stupid, but when people speak really broken english, a part of me thinks that they aren't going to say anything intelligent. man, was i wrong. they didn't want to talk about movies or anything light. they talked about freedom of assembly, torture, terrorism, poverty, family units in africa compared to those in the west... it was incredibly interesting. and they're all appalled that i live so far away from my parents. so i told them my brother lived in korea. and they said 'so you have a bad family? run away?' hahaha. it was really difficult to explain to people who marry their cousins and have lived in the same house for generations why i would want to leave home.

in other news, nick gets here tomorrow!! i'm really, really excited. we'll spend the weekend in sharm el-sheikh in the sinai. when i told nick that he should bring his passport to the sinai because there will be checkpoints along the way, he said 'god, it's the SINAI. the real thing. insane.' kind of how i feel everyday.

Elevator

2006-11-12T08:04:00.000-08:00

i was on my way to do an arabic presentation for my professor during her office hours, and i took the elevator from the 1st to 6th floor. i got in, there was a disconcerting noise, a sharp jolt upward, and then nothing. the inner door opened to reveal concrete.

i was stuck in the elevator for forty minutes. i didn't panic, i was merely glad that i had gone to the library before getting in the elevator--at least i had my research with me. when i finally got out, thanks to the help of an extremely large maintenance man, i made a vow to take the stairs whenever humanly possible.

Now I remember why I'm an English major...

2006-11-10T00:57:00.000-08:00

i've discovered that AUC's library has a fairly good collection of contemporary fiction! and i've checked out two books that i've meant to read for a while and simply can't put down:

'Life of Pi' by Yann Martel: i'm not too far into it yet, but so far it's great--his descriptions of faith are touching, and his interactions with animals and zoos are incredibly clever. PLUS, he says things like 'magoo-like blur,' which i find great.

'You Shall Know Our Velocity' by Dave Eggers: i really, really loved 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' and i adore this book as well. it's about a guy who essentially comes into a lot of money, and decides that he doesn't want to be a person who has money. so he leaves on a plane to travel around the world with his friend 'Hand,' giving wads of money away in the process. the catch is that they don't plan the trip in advance--they land in a country and then sort of decide where to go from there. it is a GREAT book, and he just wrote another about a sudanese refugee named valentino which has gotten great acclaim in the states. it's called 'What is the What.' i ordered it off amazon and nick is bringing it when he comes! YAY!

Phone Conversation

2006-11-08T23:42:00.000-08:00

i realize how severe my last post was, so here is one of my student's homework assignments to brighten the mood. he was supposed to write a telephone conversation--it's a little long, but it's worth the read. AND, his english has improved astronomically since the beginning of the year, so this is really fantastic.

Criss: Hello could I speak to Shine please?
Jeff: Just a moment. Shine---SHINE--- I'm sorry. He is not in. Can I take amessage?
Criss: yes--Could you aske him to phone me? Itis Chriss It is.
Jeff: Ok.
Criss: Thank very much - Bye
Jeff: You are well come. Bye.
Shine: Perr--Perr----
Criss: Hello. This is Chriss, is that Shine?
Shine: Yes. Hi Chriss.
Criss: Hi Shine. Listen, my wedding on november 23, 2006. I invite you.
Shine: Yes? You want to marry? You haven't a wife and two kids?
Criss: Yes. I have a wife and two kids, and my wife is pregnant now, and I want to marry.
Shine: How it can be? You want to make two wifes?
Criss: Never mind. Well, donot be afraid my wife was afree with me, and she gave me the idea of marry another woman.
Shine: You said your wifes gave you the idea of marry a new woman?
Criss: Yes - Woman of sixty seven years old. But she is smaller than her age with fourty years, very nice, beautiful, healthy, wealthy, and easy to love. (i LOVE that part)
Shine: Great, great, is she going to give you new children too?!
Criss: For me it is not important you know I have two kids, and for her, I save her from staying alone in wide house, depression, and hopelessness. Moreover, she love my kids as her kids.
Shine: Ok. Can I bring something for you?
Criss: That is very nice, you can bring many things.
Shine: Many thinkgs?! What are that?
Criss: A car for transportation, new shirt, your fine coat, and...
Shine: Wait, wait! What?
Criss: You did not hear me? I said: a car, some clothes, as you know, and it is very important to bring some underwear, and satible shoes for me and her, the new woman.
Shine: All these things?
Criss: Yes and please ask our friend Jeff to see the hotal.
Shine: Ok., its better to bring you a house too!
Criss: That will be very nice.
Shine: Ok!! It will be great.

Sometimes, this country saddens me.

2006-11-08T23:16:00.000-08:00

i've been mulling over the incidents that happened in cairo over eid for weeks now--not knowing who to be angry at, and just incredibly sad that inequality and corruption like this can exist without even the slightest media attention. i realize that i'm being vague. over eid, the three day holiday that ends ramadan, there were a series of riots outside movie theaters and such that involved huge masses of men accosting, molesting, and tearing the clothes of any women they could find. women hid in taxis and nearby shops, hoping desperately for protection. the men did not discriminate between egyptians and foriegners, muslims and non-muslims. and the police did nothing. apparently, but this is only what i can gather from people at AUC and from other blogs, since the police refused to report the incidents of sexual assault, there is no record of it taking place. and the government has denied it even happened. no newspapers covered the story, and cameras were taken from the hands of people attempting to document the scene. today, guards are in full riot gear on the streets, expecting more rioting due to the protests scheduled to take place.

i am angry, and sad, and i feel powerless. i realized quite a while ago that the cat-calls and rude remarks on the street were anything but benign. the men who behave in this fashion are pigs. i realize now that even the calls of 'beautiful!' aren't good-natured--these calls imply 'thank you for pleasing me!'

i am tired of the staring and the whistles and the comments. i feel like walking up to some of the men and grabbing them by the shoulders and shaking them, saying, 'YOU CAN NOT TREAT PEOPLE LIKE THIS! THIS IS WHY THE WHOLE WORLD THINKS YOU ARE BACKWARDS!' but i would expect nothing back except blank stares.

until recently in egypt, there was a law that allowed rapists to avoid punishment if they married their victims.

and WHY is it up to the women to 'avoid' harrassment through veils and diverted eyes? why aren't the men held accountable for the absolutely disgraceful way they treat people's sisters, daughters, and mothers?

there is a saying in arabic 'if you leave a piece of raw meat uncovered, expect the flies to attack it.'

it's sick.

i haven't wanted to go home until today.

Morocco Pictures

2006-10-30T00:55:00.000-08:00

Rick's Cafe in Casablanca

The Hassan II Minaret

Hassan II Mosque

Leather Slippers in Marrakech

Morocco!

2006-10-28T03:24:00.001-07:00

i spent the last week in morocco with a group of students from auc and had an incredible time-- we visited casablanca, rabat, and marrakech.

CASABLANCA
as soon as i got off the plane i started singing 'as time goes by' in honor of the movie--however, sad to say, casablanca doesn't have the cool hats, humphrey bogart, or piano bars, AND it's in color. what a disappointment. what casablanca DOES have is the third largest mosque in the world: the hassan II. with the tallest minaret in the world, the hassan II was absolutely stunning. it sits right on the atlantic ocean, and with the symmetrical columns and open courtyards you can feel that it is an incredibly spiritual place. we all spent ours just sitting on the ground looking at the colorful marble mosaics that line the ceilings and walls, and enjoying the fresh air from the sea.

the actual CITY of casablanca, however, could not be farther from the peacefulness of the mosque. in fact, it's sort of the detroit of morocco. gross. parts of the old city are pretty--but in general, the city is dangerous, industrial, and um, dangerous. one of the guys in our group got his pants sliced open in two places with a knife and then had to run through the market place screaming to keep the guy from stealing his camera. fun? not so much. but it was an experience, none the less. oh, and since we were in casablance for the last day of ramadan and the first day of eid, the city was essentially closed. sigh.

RABAT
rabat, however, is a gorgeous city. we visited the king's palace and an unfinished mosque--i'm starting to really love islamic art and architecture. the geometrical symmetry, the vibrant colors, and the amazing detail work make me want to spend hours just looking at the ceilings alone. we then went to the cazbah, which used to be where the pirates suppposedly lived but is now a place for artists. morocco is particularly famous for their ceramics, wood work, and the beautiful mosaics that line every building. the cazbah's tight winding alleyways were incredibly cool and well ventilated--and the blue and white of the buildings apparently kept mosquitos away. we had tea and pastries overlooking the city and the ocean.

MARRAKECH
this was by FAR the most incredible part of the trip. the city itself is beautiful--all the buildings are an earthy red, and most have mosaics inside. it was pouring our first day there which was very exciting for a bunch of students who haven't seen rain in months and months--so we decided to walk about forty minutes to the sooq or market. the markets in marrakech are REALLY fantastic. there are acrobats and monkey tamers and snake charmers and everyone looks like a jedi. i should explain that. the traditional dress is a long, hooded robe--almost identical to the ones used in star wars (which was filmed in neighboring tunisia). but the best part of the ensemble are the leather, pointed moroccan slippers that come in a variety of bright colors--you'll see an old man in a plain robe with hot pink slippers. it's pretty hysterical. and the markets themselves were just amazing--there were spices, and scarves, and jewelry, and lanterns, and shoes, and daggers, and plates... we spent days in the market alone.

AND, i got to speak french again since moroccan arabic is absolutely unintelligible. even the egyptians on the trip couldn't communicate in arabic. moroccan arabic is a weird mix of french, arabic, and berber. oh, and there are no vowels to speak of which makes the language pretty ugly in general. but french worked really well.

anyway, i have midterms this week, i'm going to mount sinai next weekend, and nick comes shortly after that! time here has just been flying by--i really can't believe i'm halfway done.

2006-10-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

sorry for the long time no post.

in colloquial class yesterday, our ustatha ran out of things for us to do so we just practiced pronouncing words that are essentially unpronouncable. and when she said the word 'ghel' and said it was uncle and then the word 'ghel' and said it was a question word, i made the mistake of asking her what the difference was. she then leaned over her desk slightly, stared me right in the eyes, and made a sound analogous to a choking dinosaur. this sound lasted about a full minute (i guess she really wanted to make a point), in the mean while the rest of the class is laughing openly and i'm sitting in my seat incredibly uncomfortably. after she made me make various attempts at creating this unpleasant sound, which (surprise, surprise) i can't, class was finished.

i realize that i haven't told you very much about our english classes. i have 3 things i want to cover: our students id pictures, the homework, and the best class ever.
1) all of our students had to turn in pictures for id cards--they just needed to be passport size, with names written on the back. however, most of them must have gone to the photo place nearest to campus which does 'glamour shots.' needless to say, we have a bunch of pictures of very serious sudanese and sri lankan men with smiley faces and exploding flowers all over the background. i cracked up when i was passing the id cards back, and they all said 'we know we have the stupid girl picture!' hahaha.
2) we were covering 'i can ____' in class the other day, and we had them write sentences about what they can and can't do. much to my delight, one of the students wrote this: "I can speak English quite well, but I can't spell. Can you spell parlamint? No I can't I'm sorry. My seplling is very poor. I can also sink but I can't sing." I'm still not really sure what he meant by the last part, but it was amusing none the less.
3) I decided to bring in "for the longest time" by billy joel when we were doing our lesson on superlatives. i printed out the lyric sheet, and we read through it pointing out words that they didn't know. i then pushed play, and proceded to sing a billy joel song with a group of refugees in egypt. it really wasn't something i had ever thought i would do in my life. and who would've thought billy joel would be such a huge hit? the next class four people had bought "the billy cassette" and three others had asked to borrow my cd (i'm burning cds for them). anyway, they want me to bring in one song a week. and i think i will.

2006-10-10T00:08:00.000-07:00

yup. that pretty much sums it up.

just one of those days.

2006-10-09T04:23:00.000-07:00

you know those days where cars seem to swerve into you, and you run out of milk...and bread...and cereal...and juice, and you get hissed at just a little more often?

well, not to complain, but EVERYTHING today has just gone a little wrong. i am currently in my room waiting for more things to turn on me. i started the day off well, memorized some vocabulary, went to my 7:30am class, and then fell down an entire flight of stairs. other than a big bruise on my back, and the dignity that will never be recovered, i'm fine. then, i went to buy dry-erase markers for my english class. it was 7.50, and i paid with a ten. but they didn't have change, so they wouldn't sell me the markers. argh. i started my long trek home. and, as i looked a cranky old man on a bike right in the eye, he ran straight into me. when i finally made it home, i got into the elevator, leaned against the wall... and then remembered that i had seen the janitor there this morning, cleaning the walls with his spit.

i'm sorry it's been so long updating. i've been trying to get ahead on schoolwork, and finish an article for a korean newspaper on my cruise in upper egypt. i will be taking some pretty exciting trips in the next month, but they coincide with midterms, so i'm doing what i can.

so far, i'm going on a five day trip to morocco at the end of this month (we're spending time in casablanca and marrakech), and the weekend after that i'm going to climb mount sinai with some egyptian students--which will be incredible. but, until then, my life is just not that interesting. although, i am in egypt, so i have that going for me.

oh english...

2006-10-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

i just had my first english class... what a trip. i'll write more about that later, but i just wanted to post an email i got immediately after from one of my students. The subject was: "Information for good lovely and HAPPY TEACHERS!"

Dear Teachers,

With due respect and honor I am here by emailing you all my great attitudes concerning my education,may be God is great I have missed my BACHELOR DEGREE NOT COMPLETED due to conflict in the Country Sudan and if I may get a chance through your direction for the way I can completed it it could be good as Mollie said she may try.

Now I am carring only University I.D Card I waiting for your positive response and your measure is highly appreciated.

I am too happy for Star English which I am learning now and I hope every body is too happy for that.

THANKS

lost in translation

2006-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

as you know, it's ramadan.. which means decorations, celebrating at night, weird hours, and lots of fasting. which means that people are getting a little loopy.

for example, i asked one of the guards how he was doing. he said, and i quote: " my head is cut off my head, and up there, with hunger... you know that, yes?" yes, yes i do.

tex-mex night was really fun but not really, well, mexican. which is not a surprise. we had an unlimited amount of great food that they thought was mexican because they served tortilla chips with everything. ha. but it was delicious, and there was a dance floor, and bad music, and margaritas. it was a fun night.

i also underwent teacher training on saturday and start teaching a class of thirty tomorrow! i decided that this is really going to be a blast. they said we have complete freedom to create our own activities and bring in songs that we think teach various aspects of english. i'm thinking of 'here, there, and everywhere' to teach locations. i'm so excited about this, i have my textbook and the students' notebooks, and i am busy making lesson plans with the my co-teacher. if anyone has any fun suggestions to make learning vocabulary or grammer fun, i would LOVE to hear what you have to say.

oh, and things all over the apartment are breaking. i started a bad trend with the kettle, and now our water heater and freezer have both pooped out. but it's ok, the electrician said he'd fix it this week... so if we take into account 'egypt time,' we have hot water sometime next month.

STAR, tex-mex, and something stupid.

2006-09-28T01:36:00.000-07:00

on monday night i evaluated refugees to figure out which level of english they needed to be placed in for the english language classes i'll be co-teaching next week. i was in charge of oral evaluations. first, you ask them basic questions: name, telephone number, age, nationality, and languages spoken. EVERYONE it talked to was so friendly and personable--and you could tell that they were so grateful for this opportunity. it really made me ashamed of the fact that i complain about having to go to class at 9am, when these people would stand in line for hours and hours just to have the chance to go to class. and the refugees weren't only from sudan, either. there were refugees from somalia, ethiopia, palestine--and most of them spoke two or three languages, some of which i had never heard of. but my favorite part was their names. we had three best friends: dikka, danke, and dinka. we had obviously very traditional muslim names such as 'abdulallah' with the last name of... thomson. every other name was mohamed, and my favorite student of the night (this 45 year old man who thought everything he said sounded funny, so he spent the entire exam chuckling to himself) was named marko makr makoor.

in the next section of the exam, i asked the students to write down the alphabet as best they could, and then write down sentences as i say them aloud. what's fascinating about this exercise is that almost everyone could write down the alphabet (although not necessarily in order), but not everyone knew what the letters meant. and when i asked them to write even the simplest of words, they had no concept of the sounds that correlate with each letter. we then held up pictures of various scenes, and asked them to tell us what was happening in each picture. this really cracked marko up because his vocabulary was pretty limited so he just pretended that he couldn't see the pictures that well, and that because his "vision" was so bad the obvious picture of a rabbit looked like a cat to him. he was really fun to chat with. they then took either the advanced written exam or the elementary written exam based on how well they did on the oral exam. and since we had already done the raffle to determine who gets into the program, everyone gets in regardless of how they place in the exam.

i get trained as a teacher on saturday and start teaching on sunday. i have no idea what level i will be teaching, or how many students i will have yet, but i am really excited to start--excited to teach and to learn from these people. they have had such different lives than i have. but i'm also nervous. i want to do the best i possible can for them, and i'm scared that the pathetic amount of grammar they teach in public schools these days isn't going to be sufficient preparation to teach english. i won't hesitate to ask people for help, that's for sure.

in other news, i'm going to a 'tex-mex' party at a club tonight--mostly because i think it will be the most hilarious exchange of cultures i have ever seen. there will be egyptian chefs cooking mexican food and (i quote from the flier) "cairo's best russian dancers performing traditional mexican dance!" what more could you really ask for.

and not to make myself sound completely stupid, but... well, i did something really stupid. i went to the apartment next door to do some homework with a classmate last night and about 40 minutes later, we smell something completely rank. we can't figure out where it's coming from or what it is, but it smells AWFUL. about ten minutes later, my roommate comes into the room and says sheepishly, 'mera... did you put the kettle on?' shit shit shit. yes i did. our kettle is no more. melted. deceased. disgusting. and making our apartment smell like a portapotty. but i think the best part is that michelle was sitting in our dining room, right next to the kitchen the whole time, and didn't notice that i was effectively burning down our apartment until the guard came in to complain about the smell emanating from the hallway. luckily, i am the only one of my four roommates to think that this isn't hysterically funny. god, i am dumb dumb dumb.

2006-09-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

after the fish dinner...

he was delicious.

2006-09-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

paddle boats on the meditteranean... and i'm a little awkward.

citadel...

me and mollie paddling away...

the library in alexandria...

fish dinner!

Alexandria!

2006-09-24T07:34:00.000-07:00

sorry for the really long post in advance... a lot happened this weekend :-)

this past weekend was probably the best two days i've had in egypt so far. there have definitely been times i've blamed EVERYTHING going wrong on egypt: 'we don't have hot water, nothing in this entire country works, i think i'm going to get hit by a car, i just want a salad, i'm having a bad hair day, my roommate never does the dishes and leaves mysterious crusty things in all the glasses...' but i'm really, really starting to love it here and i think the past weekend played a big part in that.

FRIDAY:
i forgot that daylight savings is earlier in egypt (they don't want to disturb ramadan), so i woke up an hour early. oops. we took a bus to alexandria and spent the entire day on a private beach that used to be owned by king farouk, the last king of egypt. needless to say, the weather was beautiful, the sea was warm (although it was a strange green bubbly color... i wouldn't recommend drinking it; you'll grow a third ear), the air was clear... basically it was heaven. we took paddle boats out with some of the egyptian students who taught us some arabic songs, and smoked sheesha on the beach until the sun set. we then went to dinner at the hotel and headed out to a coffee place near a shopping center. i FINALLY really got to spend some time with egyptians my own age. we went to the coffee place except three 'friends of international students'--students at auc who help out on trips and basically hang out with the exchange students. anyway, THIS was when the night got really great. first of all, ramadan had just started and all the streets were decorated with colorful lights and streamers, and at night everyone was outside enjoying the cool and chatting. we went down a couple of tiny streets until we were far from the tourist area of alexandria and we arrived at this local fish market. mohammed, one of the men we were with, turned to me and said 'pick your fish!' there are loads of different fish all lined up, with clams and shrimp beside them. there was no english, no menus, no one spoke english, and mohammed had to order for me, after seriously making fun of my ‘survival skills.’

we then proceeded to have the best meal i have ever eaten. we started out with hummus, hot pita, babaganoush, tahini, and shrimp soup. we then had pounds of stuffed clams, grilled shrimp with tomatoes and onions, stewed shrimp, and we each had an entire fish. they cut the fish right down the middle and grilled it after stuffing it with salt and spices and tomatoes. then we had home made ice cream in thin pastry cones. WOW. it was delicious. JUST the kind of meal you want to have at 1am when you have to get up at 7am. needless to say, me and my roommate were a little drowsy for all of the touring we did the next day. but it was so worth it. and i finally found some people i really connected with. my jaw was sore i was smiling so much.

SATURDAY:
we got up bright and early and had a standard egyptian breakfast: bread, some bread, and... you know, maybe some more bread. we then headed out to the catacombs--they were really phenomenal. they date back to the 3rd century and combine both greco-roman architecture and egyptian symbology. it's apparently the only place in the world you can see this blending of styles. i wish we had had a guide who didn't think we were all five years old and had told us a bit more about where we were... he started his tour with: 'HELLO! my name is khaled. this is an arabic name. ok?' please.

then we toured the citadel and spent some time on the beach. the air in alexandria is so much less polluted than that in cairo. i feel like i've been smoking a pack a day since i've been here, just because of the fumes from cars alone. then we went to the alexandria library. it was really really impressive. the entire building is beautifully designed--the outside is chic and covered in writing from all ancient and modern languages, and the inside is absolutely gorgeous. i think our guide said it was eleven stories--and it is definitely the only thing in egypt that is well laid out.

it really was a phenomenal trip--i hope i can make it back to alexandria again before i leave. but i love cairo too. egypt is a hard, frustrating place to live, but in the end you come to see past the sludge and catcalls and really love the place.

busy busy bee

2006-09-20T12:24:00.000-07:00

it's impossible to get things done when you have an endless amount of time to do them. but, when i have no time, then i'm really efficient and organized and happier and etc. that's why i recently loaded up on the extra-curriculars. because it's a really nice relief to get away from the busy streets and the roommates and reading, i go to the gym six times a week (i probably would go seven, but it's closed on friday)... i'm not really pushing myself and i don't really have any fitness goals. it's just nice to get away from sedentary student life. i'm also taking aerobics with about six middle aged egyptian women who call me their baby and usually can't finish the class because they smoke too much beforehand.

but, the activity i'm most excited about is teaching english to sudanese refugees. there's a student run program called 'STAR' (student, action, refugees or something like that. i'm pretty certain that's not right, actually. sorry). anyway, this program organizes free english and arabic classes along with counseling and access to legal channels and counseling to refugees in the area. obviously, because of the close proximity to sudan, most of the refugees are from darfur. the majority of them walked from sudan to egypt to escape the genocide. and most of them live in rooms smaller than the bedroom of my apartment with around 14 to 16 others. they pay higher rent because they are not residents and higher taxes, but they are unemployed. learning english is the first step to employment and the eventual move to a western country, they hope. i will be teaching 2 one and a half hour classes a week with one other auc student. there will be around 20 students and most of them are men, since women are put in a separate class so they feel more comfortable. but, in general, there are so many less women than men in the program. they have had such a hard life, and the abuse that many of them suffered in the camps before they arrived in egypt is really unspeakable. anyway, i'm incredibly excited to start teaching. we do assessments all next week to put each student in the appropriate class level and then we have a lottery to see who gets a spot in the program. it's really sad, but we can only take 250 students. there just isn't room for any more than that. and over 2,000 showed up at the orientation to sign up. it will be really hard to turn people away. but you have to take into account the fact that if we make class sizes bigger, no one will learn and the retention rate will be much lower than in a class of 20.

if you need some background on the situation in darfur, this is quick and easy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

oh, and i'm spending the weekend in alexandria. we're touring around the city, eating great food, and hanging out with some egyptian students. it should be really fun.

2006-09-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

this is the building i live in... i did mention that i live on the tenth floor of a bank, right?

parking on ibrahim naguib street... see how the cars are all parked in?

the crowded little street that i call home...

colloquial class just keeps getting stranger...

2006-09-14T05:31:00.000-07:00

our professor in colloquial told us each to sign up for a day to do a five minute presentation on ouselves... we had the first day of presentations yesterday. i'm not really sure how to describe what went on during that class. basically, a person stands in front of the class and then gets interrupted by our incredibly nutso professor and asked really personal questions, like: "so you have a girlfriend? why not? no girls like you?! hahahaha!" she is just having a BLAST with how stupid we all are. but, since we only speak arabic, we actually learn quite a bit.

however, the best, and oddest segment of the presentations came when one boy mentioned he likes music. the conversation kind of went like this:
"you like music?"
"yes."
"you will SING! HAHAHA"
"no, that's ok..."
"YES, habibi (darling), you sing!"
"i really don't feel like it..."
"SING, SING, SING, SING, SING" (class joins in on the chanting)
"i give you A+ if you singgggggg"

this poor guy looks like he's going to wet his pants. and, none of us really understand what is going on. i mean, this large old lady in floral print is jumping around the room telling this boy to sing and laughing manically. then, as if on cue, the girl next to me stands up and burst into 'a whole new world' from aladdin, shrugging her shoulders and saying that she'd sing a song if it meant getting an A.

Delighted by the fact that people are singing, my arabic professor starts singing in arabic at the top of her lungs and sort of dancing around her desk--motioning with her arms for everyone to join in. and...everyone does. no one knows the words, or the melody, or what's going on, but EVERYONE is singing and bopping around. she doesn't stop dancing and yells "CLASS IS OVER! 20 MINUTE EARLY! YAY!" and the class yells "YAY!"

i feel like i've entered an alternate dimension. and that, by FAR, is my favorite class.

Parking

2006-09-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

my walk to school everyday follows typical, narrow egyptian streets. however, making this walk even more exciting is the parking situation. there are cars parked on the sidewalk, then a row in the street with a verrrry narrow lane for traffic with another row of cars on the other side, and more cars on the sidewalk. since the cars are literally parked bumper to bumper, everyone walks in the middle of the street too. and if the building someone wants to go into is blocked off by cars, i've seen egyptian men hike up their galibayas (a traditional egyptian garment) and climb over the hood of a car.

BUT, the most ingenious twist to this parking situation is how the cars closest to the curb (or on the curb) are parked perpendicular to the curb, and then are parked in by cars parallel to the curb. i always wondered how people got their cars out of these spaces... and i finally figured it out. people park their cars in neutral with brake off and just roll cars out of the way until they can get to their own vehicle. it's the strangest thing i've ever seen. in addition to the absolutely bizarre traffic patterns, now i'm starting to notice people just pushing cars around. oh, and pushing the car out usually takes up the whole lane of traffic so cars are backed up for blocks. all at a dead stop. and ALL honking. constantly. because that really helps.

2006-09-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

the cairo tower. it's just across the nile from our apartment.

the cairo tower and a pizza place

2006-09-10T04:30:00.000-07:00

this weekend was a weekend of small successes. my roommate and i decided to finally lose the map and go explore cairo. we walked for over three hours, crossed the nile a few times, talked to some friendly scam-artists, and used the most arabic we could. it was really nice to get to know our neighborhood in garden city, which is right in the heart of downtown cairo. it was also nice to feel like cairo is a little smaller, a little more manageable. by not taking cabs, we took ownership of our area, in a way.

we are walking distance from one of the most well-known buildings in cairo: the cairo tower. at first glance, it's not an impressive building. it looks a little like a chinese finger trap. BUT, when you read about why it exists, you really start to love it. it was built in the 1970's with money that the USA gave to Nasser to buy american arms. it's kind of an 'screw you' to the US. haha. apparently, it has a revolving restaurant on top and apparently it has gorgeous views of the city.

later that night we decided to be even more adventurous and go to an arabic restaurant that had NO english on the outside, or inside of the building. granted, it was an egyptian pizza place so it wasn't so hard to figure out what to order, but we only spoke arabic, and didn't understand anything the disgruntled employee said back. that is until he muttered something about israel and america... and we noticed the hezbollah poster on the wall. the pizza was really great but i think that was a one time thing. eek.

hating israel is a popular pastime in egypt. even our babyfaced security guard who helps me with my arabic homework turns a little purple when you mention isreal and palestine. it's easy to forget that this is an arab nation.. mostly because tourism is so important that egyptians tend to pretend for foreigners that they are not arabs. because the word arab has grown to have such a negative connotation in the US and Europe. one of my professors described it as our century's dirtiest four letter word. and it's sad really. for example, we assume that because women are in birkas, they are oppressed. and this is simply untrue. the women, in particular, have been fiercely independent, intelligent, and much more intimidating than men. my advisor made it very clear that appearances are deceiving: "the woman in the back of the class who is fully veiled could be the leader of a leftist organization. the man in ripped jeans with an obscenity on his shirt could be the leader of the muslim brotherhood." egyptians are never boring.

Arabic!

2006-09-07T14:28:00.000-07:00

So, i walked outside my apartment this evening on my way out and there was a girl arguing with a cab driver about how much to pay him. pretty common occurence. anyway... he only spoke arabic and she only spoke english. she asked me if i could tell what he was saying, and i said i would try, AND I UNDERSTOOD ALLLLL OF IT!! hurray! the ten pounds she gave him wasn't enough because he had to drive in circles and gas is really expensive so he wanted five more pounds. expletive. i know it's not much, but i am so excited that i actually understood what someone said. there is hope!!